Bryan Talks To Frederick Co. Sheriff About Immigration Enforcement

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Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Tyler Waldman, WBAL NewsRadio 1090

Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins was part of a roundtable last week with President Donald Trump, and left emboldened that the president shares his beliefs and priorities on immigration and gangs.

Speaking to Bryan Nehman on Wednesday, the Republican said the president and Jenkins' nationwide counterparts discussed immigration proposals, Trump's planned border wall and the gang MS-13.

"The president is very clear on this. We absolutely need border security, a barrier, a physical barrier along with technology at the border. He's declared war with MS-13 and he means business," Jenkins said. "The president basically made it clear that Department of Justice, Homeland Security is going to make MS-13 a clear priority going forward."

Jenkins said the crime and violence begins in communities of immigrants in the U.S. illegally and spreads outside those communities.

"They kill, they brutalize for any reason or no reason at all," Jenkins said.

He claimed many of the MS-13 members in Frederick County are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which he said he believes must end.

"And I believe the president believes it also," Jenkins said.

Trump's immigration plan would include a path to citizenship for the so-called "Dreamers," as well as funding for border security, funding for the border wall the president has said Mexico would pay for and limits on legal immigration.

Anyone with a criminal record that includes a felony, a significant misdemeanor offense or three or more other misdemeanors, or who pose a public safety threat (including gang members) is ineligible for DACA as it currently exists. A 2017 report from the libertarian Cato Institute found an estimated .98 percent incarceration rate in 2015 among people whose age and time spent in the U.S. would otherwise make them eligible for DACA relief. That's compared to 1.2 percent of native-born Americans, .38 percent of DACA-ineligible immigrants, and .24 percent of legal immigrants.

However, Jenkins said, if immigrants in the country illegally, eligible for protection or not, are found to be in MS-13 or any other gang, authorities shouldn't hesitate.

"I believe that if they are in a criminal gang organization, which I equate to a terrorist organization, I believe they should rooted out, prosecuted and then deported," Jenkins said.